The Diva Diaries by Karen Anders Read Free Book Online Page B

Martin Slade.” She extended her hand and the audience broke into applause.
    She glanced back down at Sam, his presence commanding her attention. She raised her eyes to the conductor and nodded. He sharply rapped his baton at her commanding nod. Bringing the violin to her chin and the bow to the strings, she began to play. She moved from one piece to the next. The college orchestra was good, the music beautifully performed and the audience sighed collectively when they finished.
    Sam hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her from the moment she’d come onto the stage. When shespoke again into the microphone after several selections, her soft voice flowed over him. “I have looked forward to visiting Texas and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Sam Winchester for being my gracious host.” She looked down at him and smiled. “I would like to play for you a special work. I hope you like it. It’s called ‘Storm.’”
    As soon as she stopped speaking, the lights went abruptly out, leaving the auditorium in total darkness. A slash of lightning brightened the large room, replicated by a strobe light. Then a hushed sound moved through the theater as thunder, skillfully played on the bass drums, could be heard very faintly in the distance.
    She brought the gleaming violin to her chin once more. She drew the bow across the strings and a soft melodic note floated from the stage to captivate her audience. She held the note, let it waver and then drop softly into silence. When a flash of lightning filled the theater, followed by the soft grate of thunder, she repeated the deep melodic sound, holding it, and then moving her fingers in a sharp curve down to a deeper booming brassy note. Her fingers flew over the strings as Sam closed his eyes and let the music seduce him.
    She played sharper notes in a staccato beat, the deep hollow sound giving him goose bumps. The music seemed to be heavy with moisture. The melody hinted of the rain-soaked grasslands, whispered of wind and mist and glistening shadow that hung over the Rio Grande. It murmured with pattering drops of rain that the audience strained to hear, like an elusive noise just out of earshot yet tantalizingly close.
    The music affected him at an elemental level and touched him profoundly in a soul-wrenching way, beckoning and irresistible. Her eyes sought out Sam’s in the semidarkness and as she met his sultry blue eyes, desire, quick and hot, infused him, charged him until his nerve endings were on fire with the need and the scintillating power. The very air was electric.
    Sam felt the notes cut through him all the way to something inner and secret. He didn’t know why, but they aroused him, stirred his blood. Then he realized his whole body was on fire. He was riveted to his seat and watched for her face as each lightning bolt struck. He couldn’t have looked away if he’d wanted to. In that moment, when their eyes met, he knew he had to have her or go crazy with the wild savageness that was consuming him.
    Gooseflesh rippled across his skin as if a breeze had suddenly blown through the auditorium. He wanted to leave his seat and touch her. Pull her against him, kiss her mouth, thrust into her with hard, demanding strokes, and make her completely his. It was as if he were caught in the silken web of an overpowering compulsion, as if she were the Pied Piper and he the beguiled mouse caught under her spell.
    He breathed deeply to relieve some of the tension in his body. He realized he was sweating. Women didn’t usually catch him off guard, but this compelling woman, with her bold eyes, had done just that. It felt as if the ground had been pulled away from him and had sent him spinning out of control.
    Winsome, charming, bewitching…all those wordsfit, but no language except the language of the gods could describe the sense of energy and vital essence, the force of spirit within Jenna’s delicate